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gimp_vent

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aaaaagh!

[Mar. 25th, 2014|05:54 pm]

gimp_vent

Claire Muncaster

[

music

Pentangle ~ Light Flight (live @ bbc)

]

Dear Various Care Workers,

Yes, I know there are other people you’ve got to see to as well as me, but you can see I’m in so much pain I’m nearly tripping out. I’m unable to move, speak, eat my fav meal, / ring for your help.

No, putting my hippie folkie music on does not cure the horrible, unending pain. Nor do crystals & angels. No, spells/chants do not work (as much as I enjoy all this) Nor does drinking less. I’m not bored, I can’t be; I have enough interests for three people. It is not anxiety; it would’ve stopped by now if it was. I know what it is; I also know it could be easily solved. So why don’t you??

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Your opinion doesn't count because you're high functioning

[Sep. 16th, 2013|09:58 pm]

gimp_vent

rainbow_goddess

I like to read articles on the Huffington Post website. One such article I read recently was on "Things not to say to a child-free woman." The comments to the article turned into a debate, with some people wondering why on earth anyone could possibly choose to not have children.

One commenter said that one reason to not have children is the fact that you have a 1 in 88 chance of having a child with autism. I replied to that by saying, "I'm autistic. Are you saying I should not have been born?"

The commenter replied (note: this is not verbatim) "I'm assuming from the fact that you are reading and commenting here that you are Asperger's or otherwise high-functioning on the ASD spectrum. Therefore you don't know what it's like to be severely autistic and unable to care for yourself."

This happens to me a lot when I participate in discussions about autism. "You're high functioning, so you don't know what it's like for my child." "My child will never be like you, so you can't participate in this conversation."

First of all, you have absolutely no idea how "functioning" I am. Autistic people of all abilities are able to type, including those who are classified as "low" functioning and those who do not live independently. Second, I am autistic, regardless of how well I do or do not "function." Third, you have no idea what your child will grow up to be like. Many children who are classified as "low-functioning" or "severely autistic" grow up to be very successful adults. There is at least one autistic kid whose mother was told he should be institutionalized who is now considered to be more intelligent than Einstein and is a university student at age 14.

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What, you can only eat certain things?? GTFO then!

[Jun. 13th, 2013|10:38 am]

gimp_vent

kellirose1313

This happened a month ago but I forgot to post here. There's a deli across the street from us with a sit down restaurant as half of it & deli counter as other half. The food's always been good so we go sporadically and haven't had any real issues before, except we had noticed they don't like deviation. It's always been over very small substitutes though, so figured maybe it's just the way they are. We never had a medical or allergy based reason so shrugged it off.

However, end of last year my husband had gastric bypass surgery & can literally only eat certain foods/portions. He asked to have a small amount (quarter pound) of just chicken salad as his meal. The waitress argued they are not allowed to do that as deli items can't be in the dining area (odd rule). She offered the platter or sandwich which he can't eat half of the items, let alone the amount of food. He explained it's a huge waste of food. He wasn't asking for extra or something they don't carry. They have meals involving this salad on the menu for the restaurant area.

The manager then came over & proceeded to argue with my husband that it's against their policy to have any deli items in the dining room. I say argue because he came up with an annoyed tone, didn't greet us, simply started telling us we can order a full plate or leave. My husband advised him of his medical issue & he refused to accommodate at all. We even offered to pay separately at the deli counter then have him rejoin the table. The manager said he'd be asked to leave. So my husband left. We had a full table & he felt it was worth losing customers over this.

We have always liked this place before but, now will never return. I'm going to be sure to let everyone I know in Boca to NOT come here. I've posted the review on every review site I could possibly find. I even posted on their FB page but never got a single response from anyone. They truly don't care at all.

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Dear Ex-friends,

[Oct. 2nd, 2012|01:55 am]

gimp_vent

lilenth

Dear Ex-friends,

Discrimination? Isn't common sense, it's discrimination.

Pointing out this shit? Not a fucking witch hunt, we don't burn bigots at the fucking stake. We just call them on their shit.

Mentally ill person with experience of this oppression? Not unreasonable, irrational, nor does she need more meds because she disagreed with the horrible shit you said.

You believing this shit doesn't make you a bigot? A laughable daydream of someone who is being bigoted as shit.

You having second hand experience of MY oppression? Does not entitle you to decide what is and isn't oppression or to decide what I can call discrimination and what I can't. In fact since you only have experience with a viewpoint that is often fucking filled with institutionalized discrimination and bigotry makes you less able to recognise bigotry.

Your comments being pointed at and criticised, with kyriarchy and unintentional issues being explained to you, not language policing, nobody said you can't use the words or say bigoted shit, what was said is just because you don't think bigoted shit is bigoted doesn't mean everyone else has to act like the steaming dump you just took smells of roses.

Me? Not being unreasonable/irrational/mentally ill in need of a mental health team by pointing out that intention is not fucking magic and yes, you are feeding harmful ideas and views by supporting them unintentional or not.

In summary, fuck you. You can kiss the fattest part of my mentally ill ass until such time as you stop being such a pair of fucking ignorant douchebags.

Signed,

The perfectly fucking rational and pissed the hell off mentally ill person who used to be your friend until you both behaved like a complete douchebags.

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Were your parents perchance hedgehogs?

[Jul. 12th, 2012|04:24 pm]

gimp_vent

lilenth

Two quick letter rants.

Dear pedestrians,

You may have right of way over the scooter I'm test driving.

However, please note that right of way will not fix your ankles if you persist in trying to walk straight out in front of me or even swerving wildly in front of me, do you have a prejudice against walking in a straight line or something? Scooters, even with my slow and careful driving still have a stopping distance, please respect this, it will be safer for us both.

Also pay attention to your surroundings. I do not appreciate being lamped with a random balloon because your oblivious ass decided that walking past me was the perfect time to wave it around

Last but not least? If you see a scooter, this is not a cue for stupid stunts like running at it and sliding through the closing gap between the scooter and a bollard, especially not if there were four places to walk through other than that one and two are closer to you than the one some bright spark apparently had to use. If I'd been going faster than 2mph, the bright spark who pulled that one would have been flattened.

The lady on the scooter who really doesn't want to have an accident.

Dear complete asshole.

I know sometimes people have to park.

However there is nothing about needing part that obliges you to park illegally over the only safe curb cut on the road for twelve fucking hours when there are more than ten carparks within less than a mile of you, one of which was literally three steps from your car!

Thanks for risking the safety of others for a couple of quid in parking fees jackass.

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MOD POST: Spam comments on older posts

[Jul. 10th, 2012|04:44 am]

gimp_vent

fledchen

[

Tags

moderator post

]

I have been noticing a recent increase in spam comments on old posts in LJ communities. If anyone posts a spam comment on one of your old posts in this community, please let me know about it so I can report it. For some reason LJ won't let the OP report spam comments, only community mods and maintainers.

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Annoying memes

[Jul. 9th, 2012|10:07 pm]

gimp_vent

rainbow_goddess

Does anyone else have a big problem with Facebook memes? These are those so-called inspirational photos with a cute or pithy saying on them. They often refer to some form of what has been called "crip-spiration" when a person with a disability is used to show all those able-bodied what anyone can do if they really TRY!

The latest two to get on my nerves were posted by a few of my Facebook friends a couple of days ago. One of them says "Stop subsidizing your illness and start investing in your wellness!" The picture that came with the text showed that taking medication for an actual medical condition is merely "subsidizing" an illness and all you really need to do is eat a lot of healthy fruits and vegetables. I guess the money you spend on those fruits and vegetables is the "investment in wellness" part. Gee, heaven forbid I actually take those medications that keep me alive and don't just eat a lot of fruits and vegetables -- which, by the way, will raise my blood sugar and eventually kill me if I don't "subsidize my illness" by taking my insulin.

The other one was a picture of Oscar Pistorious, the sprinter who is a double amputee and has just qualified for the summer Olympics, running beside a small child who has similar prosthetics to his. The caption on this one says "The only disability is a bad attitude." I'm going: seriously? So being unable to walk, for example, is not a disability? Being unable to breathe without assistance is not a disability? When I tried pointing this out to the person who posted the picture I was told that having a bad attitude makes your situation if you are unable to walk, for example. I tried to explain that the bad attitude was not the disability here; being unable to walk is a disability! When I complained about this in my own LJ I got a similar response from someone who said that it's really really important to have a positive attitude when you have a disability or you will just make things worse. Again, I tried to point out that the caption on the picture says that the bad attitude is the disability, and that is what I'm complaining about. "Look! Someone can have a completely sunny disposition and always have a positive attitude, but if they have a disability, that attitude is not going to magically cure them!" I don't know why so many people seem to be missing the point on this one.

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"Person-with" language

[Jun. 28th, 2012|12:52 am]

gimp_vent

rainbow_goddess

I have Asperger's Syndrome. At various times I say I am an Aspie, I am autistic, I am on the autism spectrum, I have an autism spectrum disorder or I have Asperger's Syndrome. I generally don't bother to use "person with" language and I don't say that I have autism or that I am a person with autism. I don't insist that other people call themselves "autistic person." If another person wants to call themselves "person with autism" I'm not going to try to stop them.

I've found that a lot of people seem to have a problem with this. I hear from people -- mainly parents of autistic children -- who insist that I absolutely positively HAVE TO say "person with autism." I must never ever ever ever say "autistic." "Autistic" is a bad word. I must always always always focus on the PERSON. "Person first," they say. Yet this is how I refer to myself. Why do they have a problem with how I refer to myself?

Granted, when I write about autism I generally write about "autistic people." That's me. That's the way I write. I figure that if people don't like it, they don't have to read my LJ or my autism blog.

However, I've come across a problem. I belong to an autistic writers' group affiliated with a local university, and we are going to publish an autism journal. It's an academic journal sponsored by the university, and we have a set of guidelines to follow if we submit writing. One of the guidelines is that we use "person first" language. We are supposed to say "persons with autism."

I wrote the project director and informed him that "autistic person" rather than "person with autism" is how I refer to myself and is the terminology I use in my writing to refer to myself and to people like me. I asked him if this would be a problem. He told me we can discuss it at the next meeting, but I have the feeling this may be a problem as he always uses "people with autism" at our meetings.

He said that the disability centre always says that we must use "person first" language. I've seen their guidelines, and to me they're a bit ridiculous. These guidelines insist that it is better to say "person with a visual impairment" rather than saying that someone is blind. They say we should use the term "person with a hearing impairment" rather than saying "deaf."

I want to be published in this journal, but I have serious reservations about it if I have to follow someone else's guidelines about how I refer to myself.

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Dear San Jose Municipal Stadium

[Jun. 27th, 2012|07:59 pm]

gimp_vent

ravan

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mood

angry

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Fuck you too. My job at $big_company had an outing at your facility this evening. We even drove there, only to leave, angry. Why? No parking. When we asked where the handicapped parking was, we were told "we're full, use the overflow lot". Yeah... no. A dirt lot, across a busy street, and have to pay $10 for the privilege, and no accessible spaces? Fuck that shit.

Your website claims to have "a limited number of handicapped parking spaces", and wheelchair seating. I guess you only plan for a token number of disabled people to show up, regardless of the size of the total crowd, then that's it. When I called your "disabled services", I was told that when you have fireworks it gets crowded. Gee, ya think? That's not a reason to shut out the majority of your disabled patrons. Flexible parking where you can designate some more spots for handicapped could help.

Because you don't allow more than a token amount of space for us, you lost the money I was planning on spending at your concessions, a trivial $20, to be sure. Plus, you pissed off me and my guest. I shouldn't have to get there over an hour early just to be allowed in.

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Wow, nice

[Jun. 18th, 2012|06:21 pm]

gimp_vent

lilenth

I just found out that apparently I have a diagnosis that nobody bothered to fucking tell me about, cos hey, it's not like I, the patient need to know that I have Chronic Fatigue syndrome, do I?

I wouldn't know if it wasn't for the fact that it was printed on my discharge notes under the list of co-morbid conditions. Thanks for telling me doctors!

Oh and on top of that, the pain clinic just told me they won't take me because my condition isn't being managed, did I mention the specialist dumped me on them after saying he couldn't do anything at all for me? So yeah, hello from medical limbo.

So yeah, no treatment for me. >.>

Oh and yay for even more fun, I have my interview for actually getting some help from other sources tomorrow including a full medical. In my last one I dislocated my shoulder somehow and didn't realise for a day, only reason I realised was when I leaned against the wall later and heard the unmistakeable sound of it going back and the pain disappeared. I also nearly fell flat on my face at one point during it.

In short, much suckiness has occurred.

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